02 Jan Motivating Words for a Brighter January

It’s that time of year again. Dragging yourself through cold weather and back into work after the Christmas break. We thought we might help all you hard working January people with some motivational – and sometimes cynical- business quotations. If nothing else, they should make you smile on your first day back.

Customers

The absolute fundamental aim is to make money out of satisfying customers. – John Egan

You can fool all the people all the time if the advertising is right and the budget is big enough. – Joseph E. Levine

Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business. – Zig Ziglar

The golden rule for every business man is this: “Put yourself in your customer’s place.” – Orison Swett Marden

People rarely buy what they need. They buy what they want. – Seth Godin

Competitors

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. – Napoleon Bonaparte

The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time. – Henry Ford

The first one gets the oyster; the second gets the shell. – Andrew Carnegie

The successful man is the one who finds out what is the matter with his business before his competitors do. – Roy L. Smith

Your Business Team

Hire character. Train skill. – Peter Schutz

People are definitely a company’s greatest asset. It doesn’t make any difference whether the product is cars or cosmetics. A company is only as good as the people it keeps. – Mary Kay Ash

I don’t pay good wages because I have a lot of money; I have a lot of money because I pay good wages. – Robert Bosch

Fire the committee. No great website in history has been conceived of by more than three people. Not one. This is a deal breaker. – Seth Godin

Entrepreneurship

Nobody talks about entrepreneurship as survival, but that’s exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking. Running that first shop taught me business is not financial science; it’s about trading: buying and selling. – Anita Roddick

The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity. – Peter F. Drucker

My son is now an ‘entrepreneur’. That’s what you’re called when you don’t have a job. – Ted Turner

Learning

In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later. – Harold Geneen

You must either modify your dreams or magnify your skills. – Jim Rohn

To succeed in business, to reach the top, an individual must know all it is possible to know about that business. – J. Paul Getty

Risk- taking

You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take – Wayne Gretzky

To win without risk is to triumph without glory. – Pierre Corneille

I have a million dollars in the stock market, because if I lose a million dollars, I don’t personally care.–  Suze Orman

Leadership

Leadership is doing what is right when no one is watching. – George Van Valkenburg

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy. – Norman Schwarzkopf

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. – Dwight Eisenhower

The great leaders are like the best conductors – they reach beyond the notes to reach the magic in the players. – Blaine Lee

Opportunities

If you see a bandwagon, it’s too late. – James Goldsmith

Business opportunities are like buses: there’s always another one coming. – Richard Branson

I had to make my own living and my own opportunity! But I made it! Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them! – C.J. Walker

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. –Thomas Edison 

Ambition

I like thinking big. If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big. – Donald Trump

An ambitious horse will never return to its old stable. – Chinese Proverbs

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. –  Oscar Wilde

Loving what you do

Business is more exciting than any game. – Lord Beaverbrook

Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. – Theodore Roosevelt

If you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours. – Ray Kroc

Success

The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary. – Vidal Sassoon

The worst part of success is to try to find someone who is happy for you. – Bette Midler

Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable. – Coco Chanel

Mistakes

The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The truly dangerous thing is asking the wrong question. – Peter Drucker

For maximum attention, nothing beats a good mistake. – Unknown

Most discussions of decision making assume that only senior executives make decisions or that only senior executives’ decisions matter. This is a dangerous mistake. –   Peter Drucker

Obstacles

The only way around is through. – Robert Frost

When we can identify a problem and face the problem with confidence and enthusiasm, the solution is on the way. – Zig Ziglar

The believer is happy; the doubter is wise. – Hungarian proverb

Priorities

A man should never neglect his family for business. – Walt Disney 

Well, you know, I was a human being before I became a businessman. – George Soros

The man who does not work for the love of work but only for money is likely to neither make money nor find much fun in life. – Charles M. Schwab

I have known not a few men who, after reaching the summits of business success, found themselves miserable on attaining retirement age. They were so exclusively engrossed in their day to day affairs that they had no time for friend making. – B.C. Forbes

If you enjoyed this burst of business inspiration, we also post regularly on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MantleLtd and Instagram  @MassInformations. If you are interested in an inspiring place to work, we can hire you a meeting room or rent you an extremely nice office in Wokingham.  Email us at news@mantleltd.com  or call our Business Centre team on 0118 9778599.